Gas-turbine engine

A gas-turbine engine is a continuous-flow internal combustion engine in which a compressor pressurizes incoming air, fuel is burned in that compressed air within a combustor, and the resulting hot gas expands through a turbine. The three core components, compressor, combustor and turbine, operate on the Brayton cycle: compression, heat addition, expansion and exhaust. The turbine extracts enough energy from the expanding gas to keep driving the compressor, while remaining energy produces shaft power or, in jet form, thrust. Gas turbines power aircraft as turbojets, turbofans, turboprops and turboshafts, and also serve marine propulsion, electrical power generation, industrial pumps and compressors, and specialized land vehicles such as tanks and experimental automobiles. Their high power-to-weight ratio makes them well suited to applications needing sustained high output relative to engine weight.